The Miracle of Capitalism

Five or six years ago, I remember reading an article mourning the death of letter writing. The gist of the article was that cell phones had made communication via the written word obsolete. Not only were we losing the skill of communicating through the written word, we were in danger of losing a precious historical record since most historians compile information through digging through archives of letters. This important method of connecting with the past was in danger of being lost as the spoken word replaced the written word.

The other significant change in our modern society over the past century has been our mobility. A Couple of generations ago, we would have stayed in the same town as our parents and grandparents. Today, families scatter quickly. While our willingness and ability to move enhanced our ability to make a living, it also had a serious drawback. We became disconnected from family and friends. We became more urbanized and more alienated. The fictitious town of Mayberry still pulls at our emotions because most of us feel at least somewhat nostalgic for a time and place where we lived in a community in which people were close and knew each other for a long time. In our urban, fast-paced lives, we lack the comfort, stability and support that predictable relationships bring. Moreover, many of us are disconnected from our families that are often spread out over the country and sometimes over the globe. There is a basic human need to share old stories, and follow the progression of the people that have known us our entire lives. Many a Phd thesis has been written on this trend.

Enter social media (along with email, text messaging and Skype). In less than a decade, the information age has transformed our society and helped to assuage this longing in us. Facebook in particular has become a primary vehicle for meeting this basic human need. While Facebook has had its controvercies and its detractors, I believe that on balance, it has been a very positive force. Started as a social networking site at Harvard and then the entire Ivy League, Facebook has exploded from a site used primarily by high school and college kids to the population at large. I can attest that Facebook has enriched my life immeasurably.

I warily signed on about a year and a half ago, and pretty soon I was "friended" by family members (that has its own set of issues), old college friends, high school friends and, more recently, even grammar school friends. Some people post quite voluminously. Others are more sparing, but I enjoy quick little updates from these people. It has been fun to catch up on how my old friends have progressed in their careers, raised their kids and muddle through life. It's fun to get updates on the athletic careers of my niece and nephews, and hear about the latest setback from my friend that operates a small farm in the South.

One of the true joys of using Facebook in middle age is reconnecting with people that you hadn't thought about in years. One thing that became apparent quickly is that I really didn't appreciate some of these people as much as I do now. I don't know if it's because in my early contact their personalities were not fully formed or whether I was just not paying close enough attention. But it has become clear to me that I have come across some pretty remarkable people along the way. Facebook gives you a second shot to get to know them a little better.

About a year ago, I and several of my teammates organized a reunion of our college football team. In the 30 years since we played together, this formerly close-knit bunch had scattered into the wind. By using Facebook in addition to our own networking, we were able to track down all but a few people and organized a once in a lifetime event. We had people come in from all over the country (one even flew in from Indonesia) to eat, drink and tell old war stories with old teammates. It was pretty astonishing to see people pick up right where they left off 30 years ago. As a result, we are all in touch with each other more frequently now, get updates periodically and little groups of us occassionally get together for a lunch, a beer, or a ballgame. This all was facilitated in part by the advent of Facebook.

Recently, I reconnected with some classmates from my old Catholic grammar school, and they provided me with a stark reminder of why I remain highly ambivalent about Catholicism. Yes, all those stories about the harsh nuns with their rulers, paddles and wagging fingers were true and not exaggerated. Still, it was great fun to trade memories with people I had not seen in nearly 40 years, and hear about how they ended up. I was suprised by the number of people that connected with me that knew me when I was young and did stupid things, yet wanted to correspond with me anyway. Human beings have a great capacity for forgiveness and acceptance.

Of course membership in Facebook needs to be managed. It does have its annoyances. Some can't help but vomit their political views on a regular basis (I save that for my blog). I sometimes get requests to be "friended" by people I don't remember (or who I do not care to remember). Others use it solely as a worship wall for their children (o.k., I've been guilty of some of that, too). One woman even reminded me that I proposed to her when we were in 1st grade (she has no clue how luckey she got by turning me down). But on the whole, the influence of Facebook has been a hugely positive.

These connections have also nudged me to correspond with more people. I have several friends now that I exchange emails with on a regular basis. I have spoken with many people that do the same thing. So it seems that the art of letter writing has been reborn, albeit electronically in lieu of pen, ink, and the U.S. Postal Service. Query whether historians will be able to access these messages centuries from now so they can tell the story of what our society was like.

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, is said to be worth $13.5 billion (at age 27) and is in the top 100 billionaires in the world. He deserves to be. He is emblematic of the miracle of capitalism. He found a powerful human need.....the need to connect and be part of a community, and found a way to fill that need for millions of people at a reasonable price (essentially free). No government program brought this to us. No cabinet czar came up with the idea. No blue ribbon panel was involved in it. Just a kid in his dorm room. It's what capitalism is all about. It's certainly made my life richer.

He Really Did Say That

In a stunning statement in front of the House Small Business Committee, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said that taxes must be raised on small business so that "government would not have to shrink," and that ultimately such taxes would be good for growth. He held fast to this assertion even when confronted with the fact that small business creates most of the jobs in this country.


Any wonder why unemployment is still above 9% after two years of stimulus and Obamanomics.


I work with small businesses. I see their struggles up close and personal. In Illinois, they have been punished enough already. Over the past 4 years, small businesses have been savaged by recession, tough credit markets, and an explosion in the regulatory environment. Illinois, unlike New Jersey, chose not to ask for any sacrifice from its public sector unions that have a stranglehold on Illinois politicians, and, instead raised business and individual income taxes instead. Obamacare imposed new costs on businesses and promises even more costs and regulations. One CFO I spoke to told me, "We need a new plant, which I would expect would employ 250 people. But I'm just not going to do it yet. Not until the landscape changes."


And yet Geithner wants even more. After a 25% increase in government spending under the guise of stimulus (read "permanent growth"), he proposes to transfer yet more wealth from the private sector to the public sector, or else GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS WILL HAVE TO SHRINK.


Imagine that. Imagine a world with a smaller Department of Education, Department of Energy, or, even worse, a smaller EPA. All of these departments were granted whopping increases which set their baseline budgets even higher. Can anyone tell me succinctly what any of those departments will accomplish with any of those increases?


I can tell you what some of the businesses I work with will be able to do with those dollars if government doesn't confiscate them...... hire people, invest in new projects and new technologies, make promising acquisitions. In short, engage in those activities that create real wealth. Or simply retain an additional capital cushion so they won't have to go hat in hand to the bank.

The small businesses owners that have survived this tsunami have done so by making hard and sometimes painful decisions. And Mr. Geithner has determined that big government has better plans for those resources than they do.

Explain to me how that will be good for growth again, Mr. Geithner.